This week period 5 was fine-tuning their calibration lines from last week. In the begining of class Dr. Pothier is going over what their graph should look like and explains that students will be putting their graphs into Microsoft Excel once they have obtained a good line. After this, Dr. Pothier tells the class that if they have any questions they can speak with either her or Mr. Hooper (I think I'm finally getting used to the title). At this point I begin to move around and check students graphs. There are many occations where I suggest that students redo their data because they are unable to obtain a straight line (too many outliers). Students are displeased with my response but understand that it is reasonable because their graphs do not look right, and I believe the groans are because they have to do more work to achieve accurate results. Other students are having trouble with setting up their graphs correctly. I double check with Dr. Pothier on how she would like them to appear and then continue answering questions. Students have also been asked to determine the slope of their line, which some have questions about. In between questions I try to glance over at Dr. Pothier to see how she is fielding her questions. I notice that she is very selective of which questions she will answer directly and which she will make the student figure out. Questions like "how should my graph look (appearence-wise)?" are answered directly, whereas, questions such as "how do I get the slope?" are answered by the student under the guidance of Dr. Pothier. She will give them just enough scaffolding to be able to come up with an answer, often times I notice that the scaffolding is in question form (meaning if the student askes a question the teacher is sure they can figure out - the teacher responds with a question which should hint at an answer to the origional question). After the majority of the students have their points figured out, Dr. Pothier goes over what students should have accomplished during the period and asks if their are any questions. Most students worked dilligently but I noticed that a select few slacked off a little bit periodically throughout the period despite being asked to get back on task by Dr. Pothier and myself.
Reflections:
I believe that the best way to teach a student is to present material at a reasonable pace, including multiple examples, and then have the student explain the concept to you. For example, any student can be asked "do you understand?" and then reply "yup, sure do." Yet here there is no assessment by just simply asking "do you understand?" Teachers must ask this question and then follow with "Okay, show me." I feel that students must be held accountable for their learning of a subject equally as much as a teacher is for teaching it. I find that often times students will say they understand and truely don't, but would either rather avoid embarassment or just don't care and say to themselves "I'll learn it later when the test comes". Teachers must constantly keep their students on their toes by asking them questions that will demonstrate what they know and how they can apply what they know. By asking questions about practical application students are given the opportunity to think critically or "outside the box". During this class the lab that the students are doing is designed to make them apply their knowledge of density (previouly learned) to an actual situation. Some feel comfortable doing this and some don't, but all are expected to be able to explain what they are doing and why. This is evident in the types/forms of questions that Dr. Pothier asks her students, i.e. "How do you know this?", "Where do we see this in the real world?", etc.
Class Topic: Dimensional Analysis
Grade: Eleventh
Observed by: Matthew Hooper
Observations:
This week period 5 was fine-tuning their calibration lines from last week. In the begining of class Dr. Pothier is going over what their graph should look like and explains that students will be putting their graphs into Microsoft Excel once they have obtained a good line. After this, Dr. Pothier tells the class that if they have any questions they can speak with either her or Mr. Hooper (I think I'm finally getting used to the title). At this point I begin to move around and check students graphs. There are many occations where I suggest that students redo their data because they are unable to obtain a straight line (too many outliers). Students are displeased with my response but understand that it is reasonable because their graphs do not look right, and I believe the groans are because they have to do more work to achieve accurate results. Other students are having trouble with setting up their graphs correctly. I double check with Dr. Pothier on how she would like them to appear and then continue answering questions. Students have also been asked to determine the slope of their line, which some have questions about. In between questions I try to glance over at Dr. Pothier to see how she is fielding her questions. I notice that she is very selective of which questions she will answer directly and which she will make the student figure out. Questions like "how should my graph look (appearence-wise)?" are answered directly, whereas, questions such as "how do I get the slope?" are answered by the student under the guidance of Dr. Pothier. She will give them just enough scaffolding to be able to come up with an answer, often times I notice that the scaffolding is in question form (meaning if the student askes a question the teacher is sure they can figure out - the teacher responds with a question which should hint at an answer to the origional question). After the majority of the students have their points figured out, Dr. Pothier goes over what students should have accomplished during the period and asks if their are any questions. Most students worked dilligently but I noticed that a select few slacked off a little bit periodically throughout the period despite being asked to get back on task by Dr. Pothier and myself.Reflections:
I believe that the best way to teach a student is to present material at a reasonable pace, including multiple examples, and then have the student explain the concept to you. For example, any student can be asked "do you understand?" and then reply "yup, sure do." Yet here there is no assessment by just simply asking "do you understand?" Teachers must ask this question and then follow with "Okay, show me." I feel that students must be held accountable for their learning of a subject equally as much as a teacher is for teaching it. I find that often times students will say they understand and truely don't, but would either rather avoid embarassment or just don't care and say to themselves "I'll learn it later when the test comes". Teachers must constantly keep their students on their toes by asking them questions that will demonstrate what they know and how they can apply what they know. By asking questions about practical application students are given the opportunity to think critically or "outside the box". During this class the lab that the students are doing is designed to make them apply their knowledge of density (previouly learned) to an actual situation. Some feel comfortable doing this and some don't, but all are expected to be able to explain what they are doing and why. This is evident in the types/forms of questions that Dr. Pothier asks her students, i.e. "How do you know this?", "Where do we see this in the real world?", etc.Class Topic: Dimensional Analysis
Grade: Eleventh
Observed by: Matthew Hooper